So what is '23 Things' anyway?
23 Things is a self-directed course aimed at introducing you to a range of tools that could help your personal and professional development as a librarian, information professional or something else. Each week, we'll write about one or more tool from our list of 23 things and invite you to try it out and/or reflect on how it could help your professional development. Some of the tasks will be practical Things for you to try out straight away, and some of them will be less immediate: ideas to try in the future, or things you can start working towards now and realise in due course or when opportunity arises!
Who's it for?
23 Things for Professional Development is for anyone who thinks they might benefit from it. You don't have to be a qualified anything, you don't have to work in a particular sector or location, you don't have to be in work, you don't have to be at library school... If you think you can learn from this then please take part!
How do I take part?
To take part, you'll need to set up your own blog (don't panic - that'll be explained in the first Thing!), register it with us (we'll explain that too) and use it to reflect on each Thing that we cover. If you already have a blog, you can used that to participate cpd23: no need to start a new one (unless you want to).
What if I need help?
Then please ask us! We'll be trying to give very clear instructions on the technical aspects of each Thing, but if anything's unclear then please comment on the blog or tweet @cpd23 and we'll try and help out. We're hoping that a wide spectrum of people will be taking part, so you can also ask fellow participants for assistance and make the most of their knowledge too. This programme is all about learning from each other, so don't be afraid to ask people questions or to answer them!
Acknowledgements
23 Things for Professional Development was inspired by 23 Things Cambridge, and is based on the original 23 Things programme that ran at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in the USA in 2006.